In my previous post, I identified the grocery items that are sold in the Disney Vacation Club resort shops. But what I didn’t tell you was what the convenience of on-site resort grocery shopping will cost and what your alternatives might be.

Purchase non-perishable grocery items at your local supermarket and mail them to yourself at your WDW resort hotel.

Purchase non-perishable grocery items online (via Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com or others) and direct them to be mailed to you at your WDW resort hotel.

Use a local Orlando-area service to have groceries sent directly to your hotel. The most popular of these is GardenGrocer.com. Others include wegoshop.com and Goodings.com.

The chart below gives a break out comparison of 20 grocery items sold in the DVC resort gift shops. I’ve shown the price breakout vs. what you might spend if shopping at Garden Grocer or buying at a Disney area supermarket. (Many thanks to the fabulous Shelley Caran of OnTheGoInMCO.com for being my trusty reporter on local supermarket pricing.) As with any retail experience, prices are subject to change and were accurate as of February/March 2011. Click on the image for a larger version.

click image for larger version

While it’s clear that overall shopping at a local supermarket is the most economical of the three WDW-area options if you’re planning on doing a big shop, if you only want a few items the difference may be small enough to ignore.

Additional Expenses
Of course, beyond just the shelf price there are additional expenses associated with all of the purchase methods listed above:

Your airline may have substantial fees if you fly with additional bags or overweight bags. Check with them directly for more information on luggage rates.

Mailing a package to yourself involves finding or purchasing packing materials as well as the shipping fees. You can find links to the shipping rates here for the USPS, FedEx, and UPS.

Amazon and other web retailers have shipping fees. Do your research at sites like CouponCabin.com to look for free shipping codes. I am an Amazon Prime member, which allows me free shipping on many grocery items. Depending on your site usage, this may make sense for you. Or perhaps you have a friend who is Prime member who can place the order for you.

Garden Grocer and other delivery services have minimum order sizes and delivery fees.

Choose Food by Aisle, Brand, and Specialty Category at GardenGrocer.com

How to Mail Yourself Groceries

If you’re using any of the mail or delivery options, you’ll need the street mailing address for your resort. You can find the address on the official Walt Disney World website. For example, you’ll see the address for the Wilderness Lodge on the right hand side of the page found HERE. The address for the villas will be the same as that for the main resort.

If you’re sending yourself a package, either by self-mailing or directly from an online retailer, there is some additional information that’s helpful to include: the word “GUEST” and your arrival date. For example, a well labeled package might say:

Disney does not charge a fee for holding packages for regular guests. (There may be fees for corporate guests who are shipping large quantities of boxes for conventions.) Speak with your shipping agent and try to time it so that your package arrives a day or two ahead of you. This way you’ll be sure to have access to your items even if there are delays due to weather or other unforeseen events.

Shopping Method Advantages

There are also advantages unique to some of the shopping methods:

Shopping in a local WDW-area supermarket or using Garden Grocer allows you access to a wide array of fresh fruits, veggies, meats, and other perishable items. If you’re wanting to adhere to a vegan, vegetarian, or otherwise health-conscious diet, having in-room access to fresh foods may make travel easier.

Shopping at a supermarket allows you access to store brand items that may be equivalent to, and less expensive than, the name brand items sold at WDW.

If you want Disney contraband items like Pepsi or gum, you’ll have to get them off-property.

Your WDW resort hotel will hold your packages or Garden Grocer delivery until you arrive. If there are perishable items in your Garden Grocer order, your WDW hotel will refrigerate them for you until pickup.

Shopping in your DVC resort shop is incredibly convenient. If you want a quart of milk, just walk downstairs. Prices may be higher, but there are no delivery fees.

Purchasing items at home or via your favorite web retailer gives you access to brands or items that might not be otherwise available. This may be particularly important if a member of your party has food sensitivities or allergies or if you are a member a religious group with specific dietary requirements.

If you bring a suitcase filled with non-perishable food items to WDW, you will then have an empty suitcase which you can fill with Disney souvenirs to bring home.

Comparing In-Room Food Prep to Dining Out

When assembling a food budget, not only do you need to determine how much food would cost to prepare in your DVC resort kitchen, you also need to compare this to the cost of eating in the Disney parks and resorts.

Pricey Drinks at the Beach Club Marketplace

Some of the compare/contrast is straightforward. A single-serve bottle of Coke costs $2.39 when purchased in the DVC resort gift shop. A six pack of single-serve bottles of Coke costs $4.79 from Garden Grocer, or $.79 per bottle. You’ll recoup the $15.00 Garden Grocer delivery fee after just 10 bottles of soda. If you’re a family of heavy Coke consumers, the choice seems clear.

Similar analysis shows that if you’re going to buy bottled water or packaged snacks in any quantity, you’ll quickly save money by buying off-site. The flip side of this is that you have to be prepared to carry around your purchases with you. There may be an advantage to paying a premium for not schlepping several pounds of liquid around the parks in your backpack on a hot day and instead traveling lightly and getting an icy cold drink when needed.

For actual meals, the cost/benefit analysis of shopping/cooking vs. eating in restaurants becomes even more complicated. Let’s look at a typical vacation lunch of hot dogs, fries, and soda. At Casey’s Corner in the Magic Kingdom, a hot dog and fries costs $6.59 and a small soda costs $2.19. Multiply this times a family of four and you get a total of $35.12, plus tax.

If you’re shopping at Garden Grocer, an eight count package of hot dogs is $4.29, an eight count pack of store brand buns is $1.99, a bag of Ore-Ida frozen crinkle cut fries is $3.99, and as mention above, sodas are $.79 each. For a family of four, this works out to $16.59 for not one, but TWO lunches. Even if you spring for a $2.39 bottle of ketchup or a second bag of fries for day number two, you’re way ahead financially if you prepare your own lunch in the DVC villa rather than buying it in the theme park.

In just two in-room lunches, you’d save nearly $50.00 over the cost of eating at Casey’s. Do this for your breakfasts and few more lunches and you’re well on your way to enough savings for dinner at the posh Victoria & Albert’s.

So Where Should You Shop?

As with most Disney decisions, the answer to the “Where should we shop?” question is, “It depends.” It depends on whether you have easy access to a car, whether you have family members with a regimented diet, whether you enjoy cooking, how much pre-planning you’re willing to do, how price sensitive you are, and how much you enjoy dining in the Disney restaurants.

Have some honest discussions with your family about whether it makes sense to save a few dollars to go back to the room to eat, or whether you’d rather stay in the parks. Is eating breakfast with Mickey a “must do” or can you sleep in and grab a bowl of cereal in the room? Is the plastic cheese at Casey’s irresistible? Can you economize on snacks or beverages? Are you willing to splurge on food during vacation or would you rather put your disposable dollars toward a tour, parasailing, or a collection of Vinylmations. Also, what impact does cooking and cleaning have on your overall vacation enjoyment?

Do the math, crunch the numbers, and figure out what makes the most sense for your family.

Up next: A few sample menus made with only items sold in the DVC resort shops.

Comments

I think another thing worth mentioning about ordering from Amazon is that most of their food comes in bulk packages. Unless I’m mistaken, you can’t just order one jar of peanut butter, you get a whole case. That would be a lot to take back home with you afterward. Amazon would probably best be used for snacks or other things you want quite a few of anyway.

We’ve used Garden Grocer twice and have been extremely happy with them. Bell services will hold your delivery until you arrive. Also, you can request beer (not sure of other alcohol) but it is not in the selection of foods.

If you have an owner’s locker, you can also store the non perishables that go unused for your next trip.

Ordering groceries is great for breakfasts, then hit the parks for lunch and dinner at a resort.

Always use Wegoshop ….We are bottle water fans and drink alot on case will cost you what 2 bottles will at the park. They will bring you anything you can get at the local grocery with no additional charge including beer and wine again huge mark up. So if you like a beer or 2 or a glass of wine while unwinding from the day it is WELL worth . They will stop at other stores also for you for additional an charge. We usually get some snacks and breakfast things:) Another thing if you use them and mid vacation need a percription or something they will bring it to you for a reduced charge

Just wanted to add that certain Disney hotels DO charge a fee for receiving packages—namely any of the ones that have convention centers. The fee is charged by the Ikon business center for receiving the package, whether you have it delivered to your room or go pick it up. This is a recent and unwelcome development in just the last few years. Fees are based on package weight: $3 for up to 4 lbs and $5 for under 5-20 lbs and $10 for 21-70 lbs.

More great advice, Erin! I’ve considered ordering grocery delivery, but I’ve found my practice of packing non-perishable foods to be sufficient so far. My sticking point is always soda and adult beverages. They’re usually too heavy to pack and too expensive to buy at the DVC store. However, I have been known to pack a small box of shiraz (1.5L) or a shatter-proof bottle of rum in my suitcase, so that takes care of that part. And on most trips, I’ve decided to skip soda in my room for the most part. I get my Diet Coke at counter service meals and drink water in my room.

I mentioned string cheese in my comment on the last article, but I remembered afterward that Laughing Cow cheese is shelf-stable until the box is opened. That and the small package make it ideal for travel!

Love this series, esp the cost breakdown of groceries. We’ve never tried Garden Grocer or WeGoShop — we’ve either driven to Publix or made do with what we could bring with us — but I’m thinking we might next time.

I enjoy cooking, but usually stick with simple meal prep at WDW. One thing I lacked in our 1BR at BWV this Spring was a good-sized skillet/frying pan (12 inches or larger). I thought maybe it was just missing in that particular unit, but I didn’t see one in your pix, either. It’s something to keep in mind before planning to stir-fry, say, or make pancakes and bacon for several people.

If you were planning on taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel, you may find that renting a car at the airport, stopping off for groceries, go to your hotel and return the car at the Dolphin hotel (select car rental agencies), may be just as cheap as a taxi. I did that once and it worked great.

Thank you so much for these articles! My 3 year old daughter is extremely picky and won’t eat chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, hot dogs, etc. Fresh fruits and veggies only for her! (I have No complaints about that at home but traveling is difficult). I had no idea I could order groceries and have them delivered. I like that idea much better than taking a taxi by myself while my sister stays with the kids!!! I’ll definitely be looking into it!

I used Garden Grocer on 6/9/2013 and had most of my items delivered. My daughter’s uncrustables were missing an in their place we received two items NOT ordered. A six pack of beer and a four pack of Kalua Mudslide! We did not drink them.